This week Seth and Bill dissect the mission to assassinate the Japanese Commander in Chief Combined Fleet, Isoroku Yamamoto. The team digs deep into the codebreaking that led to the mission as well as the execution of the mission by pilots of the 339th Fighter Squadron in their P-38s.
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The Admiral was a completely legitimate target even back then, the more interesting hypothetical would be: what if it had been the Emperor for whatever unlikely event…
Gentlemen, long time listener, first time commenter. You Say Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto had made numerous blunders that helped the allies, 19:00 I'd like to ask, what Japanese Admiral or General in that time period, under those ideological national circumstances could have done any better? I say this not necessarily as an IJN enthusiast, I've read countless books on the WitP and thoroughly enjoy your take on everything that has happened thus far in the war, but who could have produced better results from the Japanese stand point with their existing national resources and strategic war plan? As you said, he was a very popular national figure, and the chosen leader of the IJN, I just don't agree that he was the direct cause of the failures up until this part of the war. Great episode, I will keep listening for sure.
I really enjoy these videos! I think I'm going to get Bill a shirt that reads "Spoiler Alert" as Seth is building the story and Bill jumps in. π
I wonder what happened to the pilots of the Zeros after that incident.
Thumbs up guys.
To the captain I would say there hasn't been a time I've moved when I havent seriously considered everything I cant fit in the car gets left behind. LOL.
Anyway.
I have no problem with the concept of assassination. Honestly I think it should be done more in war time. I know that will make professionals wince but let me explain, if you need me to. Let's be clear, prohibitions on assassination are made and agreed upon by the people (mostly politicians) that start wars. They want to be immune to the dangers they conscript (usually) and throw others into? Nope. I would argue a stated national policy of decapitation would be more humane. Make that guy (or gal) whose thinking about starting a war consider he will be target #1, not the PFC, and he just might reconsider.
Add to that democracies (usually) are more adverse to starting wars of conquest. They are also inherently more able to survive decapitation. During WW2 the US had 2 presidents, and England had 3 prime ministers. On the other hand there was only 1 Adolf, 1 Benito. There is no civility in war. War is what you get when civility has failed. Pretending otherwise simply makes it more palatable.
I wouldnt say Yamamoto was a great strategist, but I wouldn't say he was bad. It's kind of hard to do well when the other guy is reading your mail. How the Japanese didnt figure out they needed to immediately burn down and completely redo their cryptography after Midway is beyond me. Unless…
There is a theory, a conspiracy theory admittedly, that Yamamoto wanted to loose the war. I'm not saying I believe it. I dont think I need to get into the militarist army faction which controlled the government and how it tried to keep Japan "traditional" vs the navy faction which admired the west. The upshot is Yamamoto started the war in a way he knew would make settlement unacceptable to the US. He then fought it half heartedly because he knew the US was the only force on Earth capable of over throwing the army faction and achieving the navy's goal (his goal) of liberalizing Japan. That was true by the way, and in the long run it worked. Yes, either way he wasnt going to survive it but the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few or as the samurai say "duty is as heavy as a mountain, death is as light as a feather."
You didn't mention that Charles Lindberg was training this P38 group on how to get better gas mileage. Big omission.
I need to hear more about Bill advising about naval matters in a Godzilla movie!
Seth and Bill, once again a great show.
I seem to recollect there was some nasty backwash soon after the conclusion of the mission regarding violation of opsec, specifically the continued maintenance of the missionβs intentionally fabricated cover story.
I canβt remember where I read about this, but it went into great detail about how days or weeks after the successful mission, certain participating pilots couldnβt keep their mouths shut off duty about the true target and foreknowledge of the Admiralβs itinerary.
I understand these alleged alcohol-fueled violations of security eventually drew the ire Admiral Halsey and Admiral Nimitz.
Supposedly there was talk of withdrawing proposed military decorations and possible punitive actions, e.g. non-judicial punishments, special courts martial, etc.
I recall Capt. Lanphier was front and center in this sh*tstorm. Apparently the continued violations were fueled by Lanphierβs questionable shoot down claim.
Supposedly it reached a point to where they thought the cover story was blown and it might have leaked by now to the Japanese military that weβd been reading their mail all along and presently still were reading their message traffic.
You guys know anything about this stain on the mission as it relates to possible UCMJ violations and intentionally damaging our code breaking efforts?
Love these podcasts. Great work, as always guys. Thanks so much.
Great series. Is anyone else getting short story length ads?
Another great discussion of history, thank you gentlemen.
Is there any possible way I could pay to send Jon my copy of shattered sword and get it autographed ? Or is there any other way to get an autographed copy? Heβs been one of my absolute favorite pacific war historians for years now and I would treasure an autograph from him.
Another excellent episode. I think you guys are a little too tough on Yamamoto. Also assume no valid gun camera footage to help resolve WHO shot down Yamamoto. π
remember at the beginning of Tora Tora Tora ?
so he runs to the sea now, where he has the entire fleet to guard him
Turned out that's not enough
This was an amazing operation done on such short notice. It was done with such precision without all the technology we take for granted today. As a USAF veteran, I take a touch of pride in both this and the Doolittle mission to Japan.
In 2006, I was at the Doolittle Raider reunion at the USAF Museum in Dayton, OH. I got all 8 Raider autographs including Lt. Col Cole, Doolittle's copilot. Sadly, all are gone now.
The men of both missions are heroes. Both did what many thought couldn't be done. Both at extreme range for the aircraft involved. Both missions did far greater harm to the Japanese than we had any right to expect.
Neither were turning points in the war. Both had a much greater impact than the numbers of people involved.
Keep up the good work. These videos should be standards for our kids to learn about WWII in the Pacific.
I think the quote about awakening a sleeping giant was really Napoleon talking China
Thank-You!
No. This was not an assassination. This was the execution of a war criminal.
It's a bit hard to win, when your enemy can see your cards and you can't see his. The reading of enemy communications was the decisive factor in the determination of the second world war and the difference between the Axis and Allied nations war strategy.
Had the Japanese (Axis) maintained communications security. Battles would have been decided in Japan's favour, that did not in history. Even Yamamoto's life was decided in communication security.
One interesting note
The pilot who was the most likely to shoot down Yamamoto soon volunteered to join the 14th Air Corp
So he went all the way to China, and shot down serveral Japanese planes in battles, and got his plane shot out as well. He bailed out in Hunan province, near the big lake of DongTing, and was successfully rescued by the resistance forces, and subsequently returned to the service, continuing the fight. Well, both the fight against the Japanese in the war, and the fight with his wingman after the war, all the way into the 1980s.
May they both RIP, or maybe still shouting and kicking each other daily, you never know
π
The Duke of Wellington at Waterloo, on receiving a junior officer's suggestion to take a pot shot at Napoleon, is supposed to have remarked that commander had better things to do than trying to kill their opposite numbers. I suspect he was right.
At least you call it what it is an assasination. A murder. There is never justification for murder.
Had Ninitz met a similar fate the US would have been screaming war crime.
Ps I enjoy your stuff very informative and a lot of work clearly goes into your productions…
This just keeps getting better and better I hope people appreciate all your hard work.
Another great episode! Wish you two were able to do more than one a week, but I understand you both pack this project into your otherwise full schedules. It is just so interesting to learn something new every week.
Wow 16 moves in 40 years. That's low for a navy family. Mom said, they moved 30 time in 20 years. Only two of her kids was born in the same state. Happy is the man who finds a good wife
Wow, you guys have been slamming them out recently. I need to catch up on comments! I like the new wallpaper in Captain Bill's broadcast cave. π I respect his wife's dedication & devotion to the military's ever-changing lifestyle.
This is an event that I've always been interested in and liked since my younger days when I was a P-38 Lightning fanboy and read about this signature mission in a couple of places. It was a case of US air power doing their best, leading to why we trust our it so much today, I'm sure! For the decision to pull the trigger on Yamamoto, I do feel you can give some reasons for Nimitz permitting the ambush.
1. Yamamoto thought big. Pearl Harbor was his baby, it was an absolute success (barring the CVs) and it put the USA on the back foot on day 1. Midway was a failure, but if the USN didn't have the intel goods on his plan, what might have happened? Letting him have another chance would be an undue risk, to say the least!
2. Yamamoto had clout. He could get what he wanted, when he wanted, how he wanted, so he could do what he wanted. 'Nuff said.
3. Yamamoto had guts to follow through on his plans, and commit force to the scenario without second-guessing. Compare his leadership to the muddling about in the Solomons and later on after he had died. The IJN had the advantage in the Solomons during Guadalcanal and pulled their punches. Again, letting Yamamoto helm a defensive or offensive strategic operation could be costly.
Charles Lindbergh figured out the prop settings, and the manifold pressure settings to get 1600 miles range out of the P-38 in that South Pacific humidity. That must mean he wasn't a Nazi.
The survivor's and families of pearl harbor dead sure had no regrets about the deliberate hunt and kill of Yamamoto